Around The League Off Season Discussion

[comedygeek]

5 hours ago, LeBird said:

And every day we thank our lucky star some ego maniac in Regina gave us a chance to get them.  But to include only them is not quite right. At some point during the season Mr. Jones will wake up in a sweat after having nightmares of two little guys scoring touchdowns all night long using his head as a football. And the Royal Blue people in the stands will stand in amazement as they watch these two carrying such a big football.

Ripper was talking to Zontar, referring to the Ti-cats and Austin/Tillman running that team.

[ladybug]

9 hours ago, Jacquie said:

And it that's the case then it's no where close to making SJS the second highest paid draft pick ever.

If the contract is, for example; 82k this year, 90k next year and then 130k in year three it could be the second highest contract ever.

No risk to the Riders, by year three they can dump him if he does not develop.

[iso_55]

10 hours ago, ladybug said:

The only way that makes sense, and jive with what Murphy is saying, is if the 20k is include in the 82k/yr. In other words a 62k base and 20k signing bonus.

That's what I take out of this. The Riders set the tone of negotiations here.

[JuranBoldenRules]

15 hours ago, Rich said:

CFL is probably going to end up implementing standard / maximum rookie contracts for draft picks like the NHL has.  Usually not that hard of a bargaining chip to get added in with existing PA members who've already signed their first contract and don't want to see any larger % of cap dollars going to rookies.

As more info on this comes out, I can certainly see Saskatchewan's side on this of not wanting to escalate over what was paid in prior years.  Don't think their "counter" offer of league minimum was constructive or productive in the bargaining process.  Seems a little immature and was likely the catalyst that further soured negotiations.

I really doubt the CFL does that.  I don't know what the CFLPA would think, but I think managers wouldn't go for it anyway.  You're competing with the NFL for a lot of these players too.  Think of a guy like Corney.  If he had to take a certain contract and didn't necessarily like it, he might skip training camp and wait around for a NFL shot.  This situation is just a bully trying to get a rookie to take a discount.  Don't think it's a trend.

[iso_55]

2 minutes ago, JuranBoldenRules said:

I really doubt the CFL does that.  I don't know what the CFLPA would think, but I think managers wouldn't go for it anyway.  You're competing with the NFL for a lot of these players too.  Think of a guy like Corney.  If he had to take a certain contract and didn't necessarily like it, he might skip training camp and wait around for a NFL shot.  This situation is just a bully trying to get a rookie to take a discount.  Don't think it's a trend.

Absolutely disagree. Having a salary grid would protect players from the things the Riders are doing. And from players asking too much. It would also make the salary cap easier to manage in my opinion. The NHL & (I believe) the NFL has a salary grid for players signing their first contract. Seems to work for those leagues.

[JuranBoldenRules]

8 minutes ago, iso_55 said:

Absolutely disagree. Having a salary grid would protect players from the things the Riders are doing. And from players asking too much. It would also make the salary cap easier to manage in my opinion. The NHL & (I believe) the NFL has a salary grid for players signing their first contract. Seems to work for those leagues.

The CFL is nothing like those leagues.  The CFL is competing for players.  It doesn't need to create more roadblocks for itself.  How do you implement a salary grid?  Are all players new to the CFL subject to it, or just draft picks?  Do you expect a guy who has spent maybe 2-3 years in the NFL and is in his late 20s to agree to the same contract as a guy from Kansas State-Cornhole D3 who is 22 years old?  Just doesn't make sense.  The CFL needs to do things to make the league more attractive to prospective players, not less. 

Restricted free agency for players coming off their first contracts would make sense.

Edited June 4, 2016 by JuranBoldenRules

[bearpants]

10 hours ago, Ripper said:

Riders offer is 82k/yr for 3 years. 20k signing bonus in year one

If this is true, then St John is being unreasonable and the Riders are in the right... also, if this is true, John Murphy lied in his "tell all" interview with Jamie Nye about offering less as a "market correction"...

I have no issue with the Riders offering him whatever they feel is appropriate... I'm just sick of hearing about this market correction BS and how they are arrogant enough to think one deal will completely revamp the rookie pay market... I suspect in the next CBA there will be a rookie pay scale for the first round, there by eliminating a situation like this in the future...

[Floyd]

82k sounds fair...  maybe the problem is in the structure 

If - including perf bonuses - its 80k, 100k and then 120...  I'd take that deal - Bombers will have to offer Chungh 130-150 to keep him after two years at 80-90k... I don't see the difference, even $140k in the final year seems fine if he's starting

 

 

[WBBFanWest]

If what has been reported is accurate, then the Riders are offering him about the same as the 1st and 2nd place picks last year, which on the surface sounds reasonable, until you factor in the fact that he's got to live in Regina.  Clearly, they're not wanting to pay the "I gotta live here?" fee.  I'd walk too.

[Jacquie]

15 hours ago, Ripper said:

Riders offer is 82k/yr for 3 years. 20k signing bonus in year one

I haven't seen anything posted that said there would be a signing bonus. Do you have a link?

[LeBird]

I just can't see the league wanting to interfere in the salary structure. It tells the teams You have 5.05 million to spend this year and if you want to go nuts on your rookies be my guest. I haven't got a clue if the CFLPA would want to get involved in this thing. It might be interested in a reasonable amount being paid as performance pay. I would think most of the vets would be happy how the Chungh contract was structured. 

 

Edited June 4, 2016 by LeBird

[LeBird]

And from Regina this:

http://leaderpost.com/sports/footbal...medium=twitter

The Saskatchewan Roughriders’ head coach and general manager was disappointed, to say the least, in the performances of his offence, defence and special teams at Saskatoon Minor Football Field.

“It makes me want to throw up,’’ Jones said while approximately 1,000 sun-splashed fans were leaving the stadium. “When you play like this, you’re not going to win many football games when you have that type of execution. It’s not what we’re going to be about and it’s not how we’re going to do things. We’ll bounce back, but unfortunately we will have to live with this until next week.’’

I would say Mr. Jones has used his fine art of dealing with problems to the assessment of his team. So Mack-iesque.  Somehow I can see this man having five stomach replacements  and a field covered in 2 inches of bile before the season is over.  St. John, pay attention here.

 

[Goalie]

Who knows what I'd true and isn't true in this whole riders vs St John stuff but I'd suspect that if another team took st John he'd be signed and in camp by now. Riders are playing a bit of hardball here it seems and I'm not sure that's how I'd want a new gm to come in. Being arrogant and prick like might work in other places but I don't think it works in places like sask and wpg. Some rider fans may be drinking the Kool aid just like some bomber fans were with Mike Kelly... but in the end we all saw the mess he created. Rider fans will eventually see the mess Jones and company are creating. I guess the only real difference is Jones has a resume but in a way so did Kelly but both were and are inexperienced in the GM role. 

Edited June 5, 2016 by Goalie

[Adrenaline_x]

I'm glad the circus shipped out of Winnipeg a few years ago and seems to have found a new permanent home

[LeBird]

I was just watching a video on Jones on the CFL site.

 Why does he have these wires sticking out of the back of his head? Could it be he loves his subscription to XM radio way too much? He appears to be human but so did Uncle Martin.  Associating with green people? I better give Rod a call.

[Tracker]

On 6/4/2016 at 0:16 AM, Ripper said:

Sorry to say, it doesn't make sense because fans of other teams want to believe the worst. Human nature. Bottom line is we wanted him in the lineup, but I guess he thinks he is Eric Lindros or something

And Jones thinks he is Wally Buono but without the track record of success or intelligence.

[Goalie]

Jones might be a good coach but he's not a good gm so far. 

[Fred C Dobbs]

Can you imagine what Riderfans would be saying if this were the Bombers?

[Noeller]

As has been said a great many times, Riders "fans" are among the worst bandwagoners. They'll cheer when it's cool to be a fan, but when the team doesn't win, nobody's heard of em. 

Edited June 6, 2016 by Noeller

[bigg jay]

This about sums most of them up.

Edited June 6, 2016 by bigg jay

[Noeller]

I have the utmost respect for people who had seasons tickets through the Al Ford years and carried on as hardcore fans through Danny Barrett and Roy Shivers, and got rewarded for their loyalty in the good times. The problem is, there are VERY few of those kind of fans. Real fans. No question, the Riders have way more passive "fans" than any other team in the league, and that's how they get so much merch sales. But I've said before, and I'll fight for this forever, that the Bombers have way more hardcore, real fans, who are there through the bad times and good. We just don't have as many passive fans...

[Bomber_fanaddict]

1 hour ago, Noeller said:

I have the utmost respect for people who had seasons tickets through the Al Ford years and carried on as hardcore fans through Danny Barrett and Roy Shivers, and got rewarded for their loyalty in the good times. The problem is, there are VERY few of those kind of fans. Real fans. No question, the Riders have way more passive "fans" than any other team in the league, and that's how they get so much merch sales. But I've said before, and I'll fight for this forever, that the Bombers have way more hardcore, real fans, who are there through the bad times and good. We just don't have as many passive fans...

Agreed!

It's funny reading their site and reading things like the fans all stopped buying merch just because it was a bad year and this will be a one off for them. They will see an increase in merch this year but so will every team with the new apparel out by Adidas. But if they have another poor season and on top of that they still have Chamblin and Taman on the books they are going to see a dip for a few years. Once the new stadium opens they will more than likely see things good again for a while but as if they think the fans are just sending a message to the team that they won't put up with having a bad team.......that's as funny as the "Market Correction" crap.

[ediger]

3 hours ago, Noeller said:

I have the utmost respect for people who had seasons tickets through the Al Ford years and carried on as hardcore fans through Danny Barrett and Roy Shivers, and got rewarded for their loyalty in the good times. The problem is, there are VERY few of those kind of fans. Real fans. No question, the Riders have way more passive "fans" than any other team in the league, and that's how they get so much merch sales. But I've said before, and I'll fight for this forever, that the Bombers have way more hardcore, real fans, who are there through the bad times and good. We just don't have as many passive fans...

Totally. Easy to sell a ton of shirts when 85% of your fan base is starting from square one.

[Noeller]

Well, they've created this "If I'm from Sask, I have to wear the green, because everyone does..." but all that will go away with some losing. Make no mistake, it's not a myth that all of this ramped up because of the 2007 GC....

[Bomberfan85]

1 hour ago, Noeller said:

Well, they've created this "If I'm from Sask, I have to wear the green, because everyone does..." but all that will go away with some losing. Make no mistake, it's not a myth that all of this ramped up because of the 2007 GC....

Oh, totally! I went to my first Labour Day game in '04 with 4 friends and we easily found 5 good seats together. In August! After that Grey Cup there has been a huge change.